"Each . . . religion . . . is described by someone who is committed to that religion . . . but who is at the [also] fully at home in the . . . academic study of religion." — John Hick, author of An Interpretation of Religion: Human Responses to the TranscendentLeading experts in the great living religions present their own faith traditions. The volume surveys the history and teachings of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity, and I...

In his Autobiography, Gandhi wrote, "What I want to achieve—what I have been striving and pining to achieve these thirty years—is self-realization, to see God face to face. . . . All that I do by way of speaking and writing, and all my ventures in the political field, are directed to this same end." While hundreds of biographies and histories have been written about Gandhi (1869–1948), nearly all of them have focused on the political, social, or familial dimensions of his life. Ve...

In his Autobiography, Gandhi wrote, “What I want to achieve—what I have been striving and pining to achieve these thirty years—is self-realization, to see God face to face. . . . All that I do by way of speaking and writing, and all my ventures in the political field, are directed to this same end.” While hundreds of biographies and histories have been written about Gandhi (1869–1948), nearly all of them have focused on the political, social, or familial dimensions of his life....

The present Indian academic self-understanding of its history and culture is largely Western in origin. This Western intellectual enterprise, however, went hand in hand with a Western political enterprise, i.e. the colonization of India. This raises the question: To what extent, if any, did the two developments influence each other? It also raises another question: To what extent did West’s cultural presuppositions influence its understanding of Indian civilization?The central epist...

If we accept the adage «he who knows one, knows none» as an epistemological concept, then the exploration of pluralism becomes an intellectual necessity. And if we take the commonplace description of Hinduism as a plural tradition as an accurate phenomenological description of it, then the need to study Hindu pluralism becomes obvious both as a general principle and as a specific feature.This book is devoted to a further exploration of Hindu pluralism in its philosophical and histo...

This book studies Hindu nationalism and deliberates on the forms Hindu self-assertion might take in the future. It examines the intersection of Hindu nationalism with the contemporary reality of India, as represented by a religiously plural society with a secular state, which possesses a social system characterised by caste, and one whose vision has been shaped by a mainstream version of Indian history. The ideology of Hindutva has had two major orientations—of how Hindus should relate to ...

'To write on the Manusmriti is to play with fire! This statement is not merely metaphorical; the Manusmriti has a history of being literally torched. But where there is fire, there is also the possibility of light.'Why yet another book on the Manusmriti?In From Fire to Light, acclaimed academic Arvind Sharma argues that the present understanding of the Manusmriti - regarded as a text designed by the higher castes, especially brah...

Religion has become a vital element in identity politics globally after the terror attacks of 11 September 2001 in the United States of America. And so the question of how religious tolerance may be secured in the modern world can no longer be avoided. Can religious tolerance be placed on a firmer footing by finding grounds for it within the different faiths themselves? This book addresses that question. In Religious Tolerance: A History, Arvind Sharma examines Judaism, Christianity, Islam...

Edward Said's Orientalism (1978) is a seminal work in the field of postcolonial culture studies. It critiqued Western scholarship about the Eastern world for its patronizing attitude and tendency to view it as exotic, backward and uncivilized. Arvind Sharma, longstanding professor of comparative religion at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, now takes up the Palestinian academic's groundbreaking ideas - originally put forth predominantly in a Middle Eastern context - and tests them aga...

Neel comes back to settle in India after spending almost two and a half decades abroad, looking forward to a peaceful life. He planned to devote time to his hobby of painting while enjoying life in the serenity of hills. But even before he starts working on his first painting, a series of events complicate his life. He came to know that a friend he had known during his college days and was very close to him had died by suicide. As he searches for the reasons for her suicide, he discovers t...

This pioneering work examines the existing understanding of Hinduism in relation to human rights discourse.Written by a leading Hindu scholar, Hindu Narratives on Human Rights is organized around specific rights, such as the right to own property, the rights of children, women's rights, and animal rights. Within these categories and in light of the questions they raise, the book provides a guided tour of Hindu narratives on ethics, ranging from the famous ...

A highly personal meditation on the nature and meaning of suffering.An adequate explanation of suffering is perhaps the most intractable issue in the study of religion and philosophy, and the answer to the question "Why me?" has eluded not only those who are the victims of suffering, but those who sympathize with them and try to understand and explain their suffering. In this highly personal account, Arvind Sharma shares his story of becoming the victim of a severe...